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He wanted another woman

Elisabeta&039;s borrowed heart felt as if it were slowly turning to a chunk of cold ice Her prince, her husband, who had promised her eternal life, still wanted her, yes But he wanted his precious Tempest, as well

Well, she&039;d fooled him She&039;d pretended to obey his wishes, to withdraw and allow Tened sleep until he left the room

But no more

The woman whose body she possessed, Tempest, who called herself Storain control Elisabeta felt her own grip weakening and knew she had to work fast She had to do as necessary and do it quickly And she wasn&039;t certain she trusted Vlad to do it for her She had to do this on her own

"You&039;re not co back," she told the one she&039;d displaced "Not this time"

Storain she was in Romania, in Vlad&039;s castle

Vlad carried an oil lareat room, and led her toward the wide and cold stone staircase The bannister ood, solid and coated in dust Not ornately carved, but beautiful in a rough and rustic way He didn&039;t take her hand as he led the way She walked beside him, and when a piece of one of the stone stairs fell away beneath his foot and he had to grip the rail to keep fro, she clasped his upper arlow flickering between them, his eyes intense, as if he, too, felt the power that seee between theed even in so as innocuous as her hand on his biceps

She had to lower her gaze fro intensity in his eyes She shifted it to the laiven that your kind are nearly as combustible as the lamp oil"

He lifted his brows but didn&039;t object as she took the lamp from his hand She held it by its slender neck, between the wide glass base and the sphere that held the oil Its chimney was tall and narrow, sooty near the top It ar it

They resued corridor past arching doors that each seees and knobs gave the place a gothic feel that was fitting, she thought Pausing at one of the doors, he pushed it open wide and let her precede hie canopy bed with sheer white curtains surrounding it It was stacked high with pillows and covered by a thick comforter And the room was re the tall s in the far wall, the thick red draperies held back with, fringed golden ties Bending, she ran a hand over the co fro over her shoulder at him

He stood near the doorway "I phoned ahead Asked the caretakers to come in and make up a room for you I hope it&039;s comfortable"

"It&039;s fine" It wasout of a gothic fairy tale She turned and held up the la furnishings, a rocking chair, writing desk and chest of drawers and wardrobe There was a fireplace here, too, and she set the lalanced into the hearth to see wood and kindling laid ready for the touch of a match

He ca wooden match from a tin holder on the mantle With a flick of his thumbnail on the ht the kindling

"You do ed "I&039;m careful"

She nodded toward the s "What about those? Are the drapes thick enough to ?" She let her words die as he turned to look at her, the question in his eyes

"I hadn&039;t planned to rest here with you, Teh if you would prefer me to, I-"

"No No, that&039;s not what Iher head in denial, though it had been exactly what she had rateful for the privacy I have a lot of thinking to do I just-I&039;ht keep me awake"

"I see" She was afraid he did All too well

He ed the draperies together, blocking out the graying sky beyond "Better?"

"Much But I could have done that" She dared to look at his face again and was surprised to see that his eyelids had becoo to bed I can handle things from here"

He nodded but see to run away, Vlad We ood to know Good rest, then, Tempest"

"You too See you at sundown"

He nodded and left her alone in the rooht enough to let her explore ittable, and its surface was far froeous silver hairbrush, co on the top, and she wondered if they&039;d been there before or if he&039;d had theht in for her She wondered if they&039;d been Elisabeta&039;s, then thought they would surely be tarnished with age if they had Curious, she opened some of the drawers and found that they were not earowns and ca, sheif she would find fancy dresses and gowns

She didn&039;t Its hangers were filled with jeans and blouses, and a war shoes and running shoes She picked up a shoe and looked at the number on the bottom It was her size The chest of drawers held sweaters and T-shirts He&039;d definitely had these things brought in for her And he knew her sizes, and her style

Another door revealed a bathrooly modern, at least in co must have been a more recent addition The tub was old, claw footed and deep The sink was a pedestal e one that must have been manufactured in the fifties All the fixtures were brass and shining Towels and washcloths, all clean s, were stacked on a shelf And a small stand with a mirror behind it and a stool in front held bottles and jars-familiar ones

Hair care products, moisturizer, soaps and razors, and a supply of makeup All her brands All her colors

My God, how did he know so much about her?

Storone to so much trouble, taken so much care, to provide for her co into her life-or e

Maybe she was a little of both

She would have loved a shower, but that wasn&039;t an option No showerhead Sighing, she put the stopper into the tub and started a bath running Then she went back into the bedroo and white and flowing Perfect attire for the heroine in a gothic novel, stranded in a strange castle in a foreign land with a vaown felt heavenly against her skin She hadn&039;t expected to be able to sleep at all, but when she crawled into the bed, she knew she would The mattress was covered in a downy featherbed, and her body sank into it as if she were sinking into a cloud So co her and the pillows cradling her head She thought it would put the most hopeless insomniac to sleep She sank into slumber as soon as she&039;d pulled the covers around her shoulders

She slept for a long time Deep, uninterrupted, blissful, restful sleep

Until the dream came

In the dream, she wasn&039;t herself She was someone else Elisabeta Oh, it was Stormy&039;s body, her face, but the other woe of a cliff, getting ready to jump

Stormy felt as if she were inside the body of the other wo for the ride But she knew everything Elisabeta knew, felt everything she felt, as she stood on that precipice, high above a thundering waterfall The night sky above her was dotted with stars, and behind her, grasses and wildftowers spread out as far as she could see But her gaze was drawn to the woh she felt trapped inside her

Elisabeta wore a sirief and loneliness, a great yawning emptiness, inside her, filled only with pain beyond human endurance It hurt so much Stormy felt it She ached with it

I&039;ve lost everyone Everyone I ever loved I have nothing left

The Plague, Storht slowly Elisabeta&039;s faue Her mother Her father Her brothers Her baby sister

"Alanya" Stormy whispered the baby&039;s name as it floated into her awareness "She was only two" Her throat went tight, and she felt tears burning in her eyes Tears for Elisabeta

There was so with the woman Woman? No, she wasn&039;t even that She was barelyemotions, and her body-her body eak and sick She&039;d been groeaker for a long ti with her would get no better She saw no need to go on living, suffering from a mysterious malady that would surely kill her anyway, now that her faone

She&039;s one of The Chosen, Storen-the only ones who can beco, but God, not that young

The Undead sense that kind They watch over them, protect them Where was her protector now? Storlimpsed a man on the opposite cliff But it was too late for hiirl whispered She opened her aro Her body fell, and Stor foa speeds, and her stoe

And then soh the sky His body hit hers, driving the breath fro himself beneath her When they hit, she swore she felt his bones crack before the water sed therunt of pain He&039;d broken her fall He&039;d kept her fro And then water e was icy cold and pitch-black

But then there was a shout

"He&039;sshouted, and in an instant it was as if Storht into Elisabeta&039;s eyes The wo her lips He&039;selse You will not keep me from him She closed her small hands on Stormy&039;s throat and squeezed

When Storo, she&039;d found herself clawing at the hands on her throat and choking, struggling to breathe But there were no hands there She had gagged and struggled as the drea to her, then sat up and finally sucked in a desperate breath The sensation of being strangled faded as if it had never been

But she soon realized that she wasn&039;t in the big, soft bed any up in a grassy field that stretched out forever and was bordered by distant forest The afting over her, gentle, not harsh, but cold, and it carried a peculiar dampness that wet her skin There was a roar in her ears, one that sent a chill to her bones Slowly, she got to her feet and turned in a half circle, and then she went still and sucked in a breath

Because there was nothing, just e, rocky chasm, a waterfall thundered and plue cloud of wet ulf her

"Oh, God Oh, Jesus" She took a step backward, away fro in breath after breath of precious air Her body was shaking Her throat felt bruised, her lungs tight God, it was so real! Elisabeta had been choking her And somehow she&039;d made her way out here, to the very place she&039;d seen in her dreaht around her But there was no one She was alone

Not alone, she thought Not exactly The ene her hands to her head, she waited for her breathing to steady and her heart to stop racing Gradually she recovered, and the dizziness-no doubt froled half to death-faded

Could she have died? Was it possible for an invasive presence to kill her from within her own body? It felt as if it was

And she didn&039;t feel alone, even now She felt watched

The sky was dark, and she was disoriented She&039;d slept for what felt like hours in the cozy bed Slept like the very dead But she didn&039;t knohetherhad simply not yet arrived, or whether the day had passed and it was night again

She wanted to call out for Vlad And even as she told herself how ridiculous a thought that was, she knew that didn&039;t change it She craved hi Or maybe Elisabeta did She only knew she wanted hiht then

And then, suddenly, he was

His hands closed on her shoulders fro, unreadable eyes searched her face "Tehtened A sob tried to rise, and she clenched her jaw, closed her eyes tight to prevent the tears, and held her body stiffly

"I woke to find you gone," he said softly "What happened? How did you get here?"

"I don&039;t know," she whispered, and it was an effort to get the words to pass through her constricted airways "I just I don&039;t know" And then she lost it She couldn&039;t hold herself stiff and strong for another second She let her body go, let it do what it was longing to do: fall against his strong chest, rest in his powerful arms while her orapped around him and held on hard She lowered her face to his shoulder, and she let the tears coled to wake up but found it impossible She knew on sohthtless, airless tomb

The to her from the controls in her own mind She couldn&039;t hear or see or , awake and walking around just as if everything were normal Except someone else was behind the wheel

Elisabeta

Bitch Give ainst the darkness And it see, too, and she was stubborn Stor on for dear life

The darkness gave way all at once

It was like breaking through the surface of a , and then, everything All her senses ca life at once She could suddenly see through her own eyes and feel her own limbs, and for a moment she had no balance or sense of orientation

Stor near the s of her roo only her robe, her knees weak, her body lurching a little as she sought balance She blinked her vision into focus What she saw stunned her to the core

The large, sparkling ruby ring She held it in one hand, poised on the tip of her finger, and even as what she was seeing hit her, she was sliding the ring on farther

She wentthe the oversized ruby stone in her right and was about to slide it onto the forefinger of her left

A screa across the roo, then co her like soed inside "Stor? What happened?" She scanned the roo down the hallway toward the roo what the hell to say, how to cover, when Melina spotted the ring and gasped "Is that-"

"Jesus," Brooke muttered from the doorway "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I don&039;t know I don&039;t know!" Stor an arm around her waist before she could sink to the floor Stormy hadn&039;t even realized Lupe had coer than Stor at her She supported her firs touched the bed Stor Lupe stayed close, her eyes sharp,